Putting great actors in mediocre movies is offensive. Case in point: Nicole Kidman is doing what all she can to keep Mimi Cave’s sophomore feature Holland afloat, but she is just one person, struggling to bail water as more pours in through gaping holes. Even when Kidman is flanked by talents like Matthew Macfadyen and Gael García Bernal, this story drifts too far into averageness. There’s no saving it.
Now, I wasn’t as keen on Fresh, Cave’s debut, as others were, but in hindsight, that looks absolutely golden next to Holland. As a reminder, though, this visit to domestic darkness isn’t the sole work of Cave, seeing as how the project fell into her lap after being stuck in production hell since the early 2010s. So this isn’t even Cave’s original story. Nevertheless, she was put in charge in the end, and the outcome is a tragedy.
Thrills are in short supply as we visit this movie’s namesake, a small Michigan town with apparent Dutch American origins. The location isn’t observably crucial to the story, which I imagine is hoping to bank on the juxtaposition of the plain and not so plain. Mother and wife Nancy Vandergroot (Kidman) is a typical domestic goddess around these parts until, one day, she gets the inkling that her husband Fred (Macfayden) is up to no good during his business trips. Thus begins her transformation from teacher to sleuth.
Holland has the makings of a true crime drama, which would have been more novel ten years ago. Worse than staleness, though, is the dearth of surprises. Kidman’s Nancy is having a mid-life crisis? Check. She falls for her fellow teacher and the town’s outsider (Bernal)? Check. She lets her imagination run away with her as she trails and investigates her husband? Check. The only thing is, Holland fails to subvert expectations, or even offer us a twist. It’s weirdly straightforward about itself, sacrificing any intrigue on our part. Even the characters don’t seem surprised once they’re caught in the act.
Ultimately, nothing stands out about this movie, apart from its general inadequacy. The performances are fine for what they are, but they alone don’t compensate for a nonentity like Holland. There is no energy to speak of, no set pieces to remember it for, and for sure, all the characters don’t exude appeal, aside from the very recognizable actors playing them. As an aside, the production values are egregiously yellow like so much film and TV nowadays, although still not as sludge-like and dull in appearance as the greatest offenders out there.
At long last, Holland turned out to be nothing worth remembering. There are better, or least more watchable, examples of this sort of thriller in existence. Plugging name actors into the roles might have led to a tolerable viewing if the story itself wasn’t distractingly lackluster and routine. That’s the real crime here, if I say so myself.
Holland premiered at SXSW 2025, and will be available on Prime Video starting on March 27.
Tales from the Paulside 
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